Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

Titles Can Make People Happier

But some people will never be happy enough.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: My top staff person wants a better title than manager, or senior manager. Any suggestions?

MORE: Help! Key Staffer Refuses to Supervise People | 44 Key Attributes for Assessing Staffers | Make CPE Worth Your While | What To Do with a Lousy Client? | But I AM Managing! | How to Run a Practice in 90 Pages | How Improv Can Help Accountants
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

ANSWER: In larger firms, senior manager is one step below partner.
READ MORE →

CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

When CPAs Leave to Work for a Client

Are you sure that grass is greener?

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I know many CPAs who left public accountancy to take a “better” job. For many of them this was a mistake. For some it worked out, so if you are one of the lucky few, you can stop reading what I have to say.

MORE: When Siblings Battle over the Family Business | Readers Rip: ‘She Wanted Her Shoebox Back’ | CEOs Don’t Always Know Numbers | Finding New Business in Sustainability | How to Recoup Staff Training Costs
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

There are basically three types of companies the accountant could work for – a small client that does not have an in-house controller or CFO, one whose controller will be replaced by the departing CPA, or a large company that has an entire accounting staff already in place. Let’s talk about working for the small companies that do not have a controller.
READ MORE →

FEATURED

Help! Key Staffer Refuses to Supervise People

4 ways to deal with it.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: I have a key staff person who does not like supervising people. He says he can do everything faster and better than anyone else and doesn’t want to take the time to teach someone who, he says, won’t do it as well. He is a workhorse and spends anywhere from 50 to 60 hours a week all year round. What do I do?

MORE: 44 Key Attributes for Assessing Staffers | Reasons to Drop Your Book of Business | Are You Marketing for 2022 Yet? | Stop Drowning in Client Documents | Make More Money Starting Now | The Wrong Way to Look for Staff | Strategic Planning for the Small Firm
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

ANSWER: He told me his firm consists of 10 staff and one owner and this person is indispensible to him, but he (the owner)
READ MORE →

CHECKLIST

44 Key Attributes for Assessing Staffers

They’re in no order. What are your priorities?

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: Do you have a staff evaluation checklist?

MORE: Reasons to Drop Your Book of Business | Get More Done By Saying No | Don’t Fire That Staffer on May 18! | Employee Demands a Raise She Doesn’t Deserve | How Are You Spending the Next Five Years? | How to Get the Most from CPE | Does Your Staff Know All the Services You Provide? | Price Your Practice by Gross
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

ANSWER: I did not have a checklist of attributes that are looked at in evaluating staff performance, so I prepared one.
READ MORE →

FEATURED

Why Your Billings Are Ruining Your Firm

Do you see managing partner as a part-time role? If not, don’t treat it like one.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: About a year ago I became the managing partner of my 50-person, six-partner firm. We gross about $7 million. I still maintain my book of business, which is about $1 million, and have 1,000 chargeable hours.

MORE: Get More Done By Saying No | Make CPE Worth Your While | Are You Marketing for 2022 Yet? | Don’t Fire That Staffer on May 18! | What To Do with a Lousy Client? | Stop Drowning in Client Documents | Employee Demands a Raise She Doesn’t Deserve | But I AM Managing! | Make More Money Starting Now
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Needless to say, I have been working very hard, about 2,700 total hours, yet my partners are complaining I do not have enough chargeable time and I tend to agree with them. How I can increase my chargeable hours?
READ MORE →

SEARCH CPA TRENDLINES

Edward Mendlowitz

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

Buy now | Learn More

Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, PFS, is a partner at Withum, a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory, and accounting firm. Ed has over 40 years of public accounting experience, is recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today, and is the CPA Trendlines "Practice Doctor." His latest handbook for CPA Trendlines is 77 Ways to Wow! The Handbook for Small-Business Advisory Services.

Ed is also the author of "Memoirs of a CPA," available at Amazon.

Buy now | Learn more

"Memoirs" tells his story as a CPA and provides an inside look at what CPAs do and how they run their accounting "business." CPAs must serve clients effectively and exceptionally, recruit, train, retain and grow staff, and charge fees that clients happily pay because of the value they receive while the CPA earns a living, funds a retirement account, grows infrastructure, and perhaps makes a profit. This book tells how he did all of this and much more.

More Ed Mendlowitz in the CPA Trendlines Store:

He is a licensed, certified public accountant in the states of New Jersey and New York and is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in business valuation (ABV), certified in financial forensics (CFF) and as a personal financial specialist (PFS). Ed is also admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court and has testified as an expert witness in federal and state court regarding business valuations, and twice at the House Ways and Means Committee on tax reform, fairness, and reduction. A City College of New York graduate, Ed earned his bachelor of business administration degree.

He is a member of the AICPA, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA) and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA). In addition, Ed was a founding partner of Mendlowitz Weitsen, LLP, CPAs, which merged with Withum in 2005. Currently, he serves on the NYSSCPA Estate Planning Committee and was chairman of the committee that planned the NYSSCPA’s 100th Anniversary. Ed, the author of 19 books, has also written hundreds of articles for business and professional journals and newsletters.

He is the contributing editor to the Practitioners Publishing Company’s 706/709 Deskbook, the AICPA’s Management of an Accounting Practice Handbook, Corporate Controller’s Handbook and Wiley’s Handbook on Budgeting and is on the editorial board of Bottom Line/Personal newsletter and the Journal of Accountancy Member Panel on Business Valuation. Appearing regularly on television news programs, Ed has also been quoted in numerous major newspapers and periodicals in the United States. He received the Lawler Award for the best article published in 2001 in the Journal of Accountancy.

Ed frequently speaks to many professional and business groups, including the AICPA, NJSCPA, NYSSCPA, American Management Association, the National Committee for Monetary Reform, the University of Medicine and Dentistry in N.J., and many more. For 11 years, he taught courses on financial analysis, corporate financial policy and theory, monetary and fiscal policy, and managerial accounting in the MBA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Edward Mendlowitz